Product Description

Oblivion Game of the Year Edition presents one fo the best RPG's of all time like never before. Step inside the most richly detailed and vibrant game-world ever created. With a powerful combination of freeform gameplay and unprecedented graphics, you can unravel the main quest at your own pace or explore the vast world and find your own challenges. Also included in the Game of the Year edition are Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion, adding new and unique quests and content to the already massive world of Oblivion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #746 in Video Games
• Brand: Bethesda
• Model: 12610
• Published on: 2007-10
• Released on: 2007-10-16
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .75" h x 5.50" w x 6.75" l, .30 pounds

Features

• Live another life in another world, create and play any character you can imagine
• An all-new combat and magic system brings first person role-playing to a new level of intensity
• Groundbreaking AI system gives characters full 24/7 schedules
• New lands to explore in the Shivering Isles expansion
• Challenging new foes, hideous insects, Flesh Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, amphibeous Grummites and more

Customer Reviews

Is Too Much Ever Enough?
Oblivion is EXACTLY how I imagined an RPG should be like back in the 80's, while playing Ultimas on Commodore 64s and Atari STs.

Oblivion has weather. While there is no wind other than a constant, gentle breeze, you do get rain/thunderstorms, fog, snow (no blizzards though, because there's not much wind). You don't slip and fall on ice but the sound of your steps is different whether you walk on the road, on grass, on snow or on ice.

The world of Cyrodill is not exactly continent-size, maybe some 20-30 miles in any direction from downtown Imperial City but... what a world this is. Cities, settlements, camps, estates, roadside inns, ruins, caves, dungeons, mines, shrines. The landscape is made up of plains, hard-to-climb mountains, rivers, swamps, waterfalls, seas. You can travel on foot or you can ride a horse. You can fight your way into fame and fortune while doing good or you can sneak into other people's houses or pickpocket the unsuspecting. The guards will chase you and throw you in jail if you do illegal things but, if they like you enough, maybe they will look the other way sometimes. Powerful gods or humble people will ask you do 'little things' for them and, if you can make them happy, they will reward you according to their abilities. You can raise to the top of your profession, as a fighter, as a mage, as a thief or as an assassin or you can assemble your own little gang of dreamy crusaders so that you can fight evil and recover the relics of a legendary knight. Or you can do them all and become all, in sequence or make progress in all paths more or less simultaneously while moonlighting as a gladiator as well and, if still bored, how about helping a lady take care of the rats in her basement (that's NOT what you think) or some drunk guy at the inn get rid of the Trolls that took over his daddy's country estate? Oh and, I forgot, there's a world to save or... wait... there's TWO worlds, thanks to the Shivering Isles extension.

This game is so huge, I can't see how you could really 'finish' it. After more than 2 months of almost daily playing, I am maybe 75-80% into the main quest, half a way through the Knights of the Nine, only started the Shivering Isles adventures. I did become the realm's Chief Mage (and the titles earns me no respect from the scholar mages) and the grand master at the Fighters league, got myself 350,000 gold coins in my pocket, 2 comfortable houses and 2 nice offices, completed close to 100 quests, slaughtered 2000 creatures and hundreds of humans, murdered 4 or 5 and all but one by mistake (friendly fire), didn't even come close to the Thieves guild and, foolishly, made it impossible for me to ever join the Dark Brotherhood (these are the assassins). Also, I've never been a vampire and didn't yet start my career as a professional gladiator. I did massacre the peaceful dwellers of a small village but I did that under the influence of some drugs that made them look to me like bloody Orcs - that was the price to pay for infiltrating and destroying the source of that scourge. Oh, and while briefly in the land of Dementia - or was it Mania? - I did, willingly, push buttons that caused a few careless adventurers to go insane and I watched as they were becoming so. I humiliated a lovely princess - or was it a duchess? - and I killed so many fearsome monsters, I lost count myself but the game does keep a count so it's easy to know. In fact, the game keeps track of so many things... I could easily find out how many jokes I told, how many potions I made, how many horses I've stolen (one), how many hours I slept or how many books I read.

Well...? What do you think?

On the 'not so good' side, the game does slow down when you are fighting 4-5 monsters at the same time or when there are other things that keep the PS3 busy while you are fighting the baddies - like a fire burning. Loading/saving times are a bit too long but, while this is happening, you do get to read some randomly selected good advice on the screen.

The other thing that saddens me is that I don't believe the good people at Bethesda are working on the next chapter yet. I do hope that, as soon as they are done with Fallout-3, they are going to get busy with another adventure in Cyrodill or thereabouts.

My other problem is that I am now fighting with my kids over time on the PS3. We have a bunch of other games but, since Oblivion came into our house, I would say that 95%+ of our PS3 time was on Oblivion.

Sets the bar too high, ruins all other games
OK, I've been ruined so badly that all other games seem less appealing now. Guess I'll have to wait for Elder Scrolls V now :)

This is the best game I've ever played, period.

It was hard to stop. The flexiblity of gameplay it provides is phenomenal. Great graphics, non-repetitive actions, non-linear flow, awesome soundtrack, numerous challenges...I can keep going. I spent 5 months playing this game at least 2-3 days out of a week, lasting about 2 hours at least. It is so vast, engaging and challenging enough to keep it interesting. No wonder it's the game of the year.

Some very good with some very bad
The good in this game is very good.

*Its very free-form. You can roam in this game where ever you wish whenever you wish.
*There is much to keep you busy. With multiple guilds and quests in every town you can keep questing for days. Leveling up different skills and learning about things like alchemy is a game in itself.
*Its a beautiful game with great looking environments and interesting people.
*The story is solid, if not great.
*Combat is fun and involving, if not up to action game standards.

The bad in this game is very bad.

*The Elder Scrolls series has what may be the worst leveling/advancement system ever. It is a travesty. In order to become powerful you have to do the opposite of what would be intuitive. Leveling guides for the game spend a good amount of time talking about how to work around the system to advance. And if you don't manage to break their horrible system just right you will be in for a disaster because...

*World leveling is awful. I play RPGs to become someone. To advance from the lowly prisoner to a god among men. In Oblivion I play to bring higher levels to all mankind. Its a great service for the game people, but it is not a fun gameplay mechanic. As I level up, so does all the world. All that great gear I have been hoping to get? Once it was unheard of, now every shop and two-bit thief has it. Its just a little absurd, kills immersion and really hurts the fun factor. It also makes for some absurd situations. By accident as a level one character I found one of the gates of Oblivion. As a level one character I traveled to hell and defeated all the demons. Because just like the world levels up, it levels down. In Oblivion you never have a quest you cannot do, which deprives you of the feeling of success you usually get in such games when you find a place where you cannot advance and return later, more powerful, to slay your enemies. Not here.

*The world is bland. There are no dungeons with mighty powerful monsters and great treasure waiting for you to stumble accidentally on them. Only when you become mighty and powerful - then suddenly every dungeon is filled with amazing treasure. This randomness and blandness makes exploration of dungeons and locales pointless. In Oblivion if you have seen one dungeon, you have seen them all.

I should probably have played Oblivion on the PC, where these problems can be fixed, leaving only the positives. Overall, I think Oblivion is a decent game and will keep me busy for awhile. For now I pray that Bethesda does not carry on their advancement design and world leveling into Fallout 3 and make a mess out of that noble franchise.